Walking the Capital Ring - Section 6 and 7

New weekend, same drill. The weather was forecasted to be a little chilly, but sunny. After our tube rides to Wimbledon Park, we could begin our walk.

Section 6

Wimbledon Park, as the name suggests is close to the Wimbledon Tennis Club. Although they officially want you to go through Southfields station, the walk from Wimbledon Park station would go through Wimbledon Park (the park, not the station). And that's where our first bit of the walk passed through. It was a little bit busy in the park and after walking by the lake with swans, we soon left it towards the tennis fields. We never quite made it there though, and instead, we entered Wimbledon Common. After a few "rough tracks" with a little bit of mud, we encountered its main attraction: the Wimbledon Windmill (or perhaps the accompanying tea rooms?). After crossing the Wimbledon Common Golf Club we had to wait ages to cross the A3 to get to the Robin Hood Gate and Richmond Park. It had a funny Pegasus crossing too.

Richmond Park is the largest of London's Royal Parks. After finding our way around the car park, we started the walk up a hill: Spankers Hill, and then back down again to pass in between the two Pen Ponds. After going up another hill, and "avoiding" a short cut, we spotted one of the UK's oldest trees. At apparently more than 750 years old, the Richmond Royal Oak is quite a sight.

From here on it was mostly downhill into Richmond. After going around St Peter's and its church yard, and crossing a farm and a field, we ended up at the river Thames. We broke for lunch at the end of section 6, at the White Cross, for a pint and some fish and chips.

Section 6 is so far my favourite. With the beautiful weather helping, the views at Richmond Park where a definite pleasure to look at. We didn't spot deer, or Fenton though.

Section 7

With the weather being so perfect, we continued our hike along the river. After a short while we crossed it on the Richmond Lock footbridge to continue on the North side. We had to leave the river to get around a new development for a bit, to come back, but only for a short time. After about a kilometer we left the river to walk through Syon Park, with its manor house and garden centre.

After leaving the park, we found ourselves at Brentford, where the river Brent meets the Thames. The Grand Union Canal and the river Brent share a few stretches of water here too. We set off along the canal along the tow path. There was a nice contrast between the locks, colourful canal boats, and GSK's modern HQ. It was quite nice going on the tow path, but the sound of the M4 was a little distracting. We passed two sets of locks, crossed the canal/river on Gallow's Bridge, and ended our walk near Boston Manor just before getting to Osterley Lock.